Polyphonic Playground

Cedric Michael Cox 

on view: July 13 – July 27, 2013

Opening reception: Saturday, July 13, 5:30–8pm 

FiveMyles gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of new paintings and drawings by Cedric Michael Cox. 

Cedric Michael Cox. Cox is a post-emerging artist whose work has been gathering acclaim in the Greater Cincinnati region, and Poly. Playground is his first solo exhibition in Brooklyn/the greater New York area.  Cox's paintings reflect a renewed interest in abstraction, although, like the Cubist masters like Picasso and Braque whose work has so influenced Cox, he prefers semi-abstraction, as references to both music and architecture that pervade his rhythmic, syncopated paintings and drawings. Cox's works are like seesaws, balancing his homage’s to early modern masters, including Paul Klee, and his postmodern sensibility, wherein he deconstructs music, mainly jazz, and architecture and works these elements into his abstractions. 

“My work is a spiritual testimony to the visual experiences that arouse my senses and my synapses as I investigate and interrupt the world around me, quietly and loudly”. 
 
Cox uses bright, bold color and geometry to create balance and harmony in his compositions: he may be said to be painting jazz, or the urban environment in which he lives and works, often together, but sometimes separately.  But his work is optimistic and ebullient, offering up the joy he finds in music and art, rolling his identity and passions into his work.  The drawings show us his original compositions--really designs--and the elegance of his mark making, and the paintings make us soar along with them.  Cox's combination of abstraction, process, and the references to the lyricism and organicism he chooses to represent his interior and exterior worlds, show his work to be passionate and hopeful, and utterly original. 
 
We hope you enjoy coming to this exhibition, where Cedric invites you into his Polyphonic Playground. 

about the artist:

Cedric Michael Cox is best known for his paintings and drawings, which fall between surrealism and representational abstraction.  His work expresses themes ranging from mythical literature to the relationships between the physical body, musical allegories, and the natural and man made landscapes.  Cox received his bachelor’s in Fine Arts degree in 1999 at the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture Art and Planning.  While receiving his BA in Fine Arts at the University of Cincinnati's College of Design, Architecture Art and Planning, he was awarded a fellowship to study at the prestigious Glasgow School of Art in Scotland.  After graduation his work began to show locally and regionally.  Cox has always been involved in developing themes for art exhibitions and promoting up and coming artists.  As an assistant project manager, he worked with Hip – Notic Concepts on unique events that showcased themed art exhibitions, popular art collections, films and music.  While working with Hip – Notic Concepts, Cox created Art Shapes Us, a program he coordinates and teaches that brings together high school and middle school students from various educational institutions and backgrounds for a 6 to 8 week art course.   Throughout his career Cox has executed art educational projects at the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Cincinnati Art Museum, Taft Museum of Art, the Weston Gallery at the Aronoff Center for the Arts, the Carnegie Visual and Performing Arts Center, Visionaries and Voices, ArtWorks, Kennedy Heights Arts Center, public schools and the Contemporary Arts Center where his work is featured in the interactive Unmuseum.  In support of his efforts in art education the City of Cincinnati awarded Cox the Individual Artist Grant in 2009.  He received a Congressional Award in 2010.  His art has been featured in magazines, news broadcast and in the third addition of the college text book Drawing (space, form and expression).  In addition to his work being in corporate collections Cox has executed two large-scale public murals for the city of Cincinnati.  His 2012 exhibits include the Museum of Science and Industry Chicago, the Phoenix Gallery, Chicago, Sacramento’s Evolve the Gallery, the Harlem Fine Art exhibition, the Williamsburg Arts and Historical Center Brooklyn, NY, the National Arts League, Douglaston, NY and The Robeson Gallery at Pennsylvania State University.  In 2013 Cox returned to Chicago for the Black creativity exhibition at the Museum of Science and Industry and in July of this year Cox will have his first solo exhibition at Five Myles Gallery in Brooklyn, New York. 

DIRECTIONS:

Take 2, 3, or 4 trains to Franklin Avenue. Walk two blocks against the traffic on Franklin. Walk ¾ block to 558 St. Johns Place. FiveMyles is within easy walking distance from the Brooklyn Museum.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

FiveMyles is in part supported by the New York State Council for the Arts, Public Funds from the New York City Dept. of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, Council Member Laurie Cumbo, the Greenwich Collection, The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Foundation, the Lily Auchincloss Foundation, the Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation, and Humanities NY.